My stomach spins and then immediately crashes, because how dumb could I be? How forward and presumptuous of me.
Toto hops into my lap and paws at my neck. This time I let him bother me.
“I’m okay,” I tell him and scratch at the space between hisears. “Hopefully Rook won’t hold last night against me. Do you think he’ll hold it against me?”
Toto sits back on his hind legs and blinks at me.
“Right. As if you care. I need some coffee. Coffee fixes everything.”
Yanking back the quilt, I go to the washroom and splash cold water on my face. The coolness helps wake me up and ground me. I leave my hair down and slip back into my checkered dress. I’m beginning to wish I’d packed more clothes when I left the house.
The smell of freshly baked bread and frying bacon makes its way up the stairwell and beneath my door.
I may be in a strange land, but at least they have bacon.
“Do you want to come down to breakfast or stay in the room?” I ask Toto. He just gives me a blank look, which I take to mean he wants to nap just as soon as I take him out to use the bathroom.
When we make our way down the hallway, I find the door to Rook’s room cracked open. I peer inside to find the bed made and the curtains drawn open.
I have yet to find a clock in this place, and the cursed sky makes it harder to judge time by nature, but by the exhaustion in my body, it feels like early morning.
What time did Rook get up?
Once Toto is done outside, I return him to my room where he quickly curls up on the bed and closes his eyes.
Downstairs, in the main part of the tavern, I find the Red Wander much quieter than it was with the rowdy night crowd. A man sits at one of the round tables in the back corner reading a newspaper, sipping on coffee.
Two women are by the front window, sharing a plate of scones and a kettle of tea.
“Good morning,” Remy says as they hurry past with a stack of empty plates.
“Morning.”
“Your friend is waiting for you in the garden.”
At the mention ofmy friend, my stomach flips.
I’m not sure what I expected to find in the morning. That Rook was a figment of my imagination? That he decided he didn’t need me after all and left? That his memories returned and he realized he had more important things to do?
I follow Remy through an archway and down a hall with a redbrick floor.
“Through there.” They nod at open double doors before disappearing into what I presume is the kitchen.
I’d been so tired last night, I hadn’t bothered to explore the rest of the inn.
Thegardenis actually a courtyard in the center of the inn, with the rest of the building making a box around it.
Flagstones are set into the ground with moss and cloves growing in the cracks between. There are several café tables dotted around the space, with two rows of picnic tables in the middle of the courtyard. Greenery and flowers bloom in the cultivated beds that surround the space.
String lights make a zigzag overhead, driving away the eerie blue darkness of the ominous sky.
I spot Rook at one of the café tables tucked in between a sculpted hedge and a giant bush of blooming purple flowers.
When he sees me, he smiles, and his smile does weird things to my insides.
“Care to join me, Kansas?” he asks.
“You’re up early.” I follow the curving flagstone path from the open double doors across the courtyard. We aren’t alone out here. In fact, it seems the garden is more popular than themain dining room. Most of the tables are occupied, but I can’t tell if they’re here for the food or the show. Because it feels like they’re all staring at me and Rook.
